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In Reply to: RE: RIP Peter Aczel posted by Bob Rex on June 25, 2017 at 06:52:31
Like Mr. Atkinson, I too read TAS and TAC side by side as a young audiophile ca. 1979-1983. IIRC, the last TAC that I received - quite "late" - showed the skeptical, unvarnished Aczel "for the first time".
(but maybe I hadn't noticed in his earlier issues)
(I, and audio friends, were unaware of Stereophile until about 1986-87. We liked it and subscribed)
I recall that he compared a rebuilt Citation 1 preamp to the then-current Audio Research flagship (the SP-10?) - essentially he said they were indistingusihable. Harry Pearson snorted at that in TAS.
Before that, he was high on the RGR-something-or-other preamp.
And, oh yeah, a loudspeaker by "Fourier" - which has been commented on here.
Much later, ten years (more?), I received an issue in which he was a full-on objective/DBT observer, complete with ridicule for open-testing and open testers.
(and now I see it was Issue 14, 1991, available for download)
So, I'll indulge in some pop-psychology - what "triggered" that objective stance, along with the ridicule?
PS - Apparently I'd forgotten that Aczel "stiffed" me by not producing those TAC issues.
PPS - I also recall that Aczel frequently had useful observations about loudspeakers, in addition to the rock-solid, measurable aspects of other audio gear (FWIW, I think Stereophiles's listen-and-measure approach is superior to only one or the other).
At some point Aczel seems to have stopped "trusting his ears". Others have suggested this was out of "spite" over head-space/literary (and meat-space)*** wars. But it seems psychologically untenable for all that to be motivated by spite - since it seemed he remained a fan of matters-audio, so I'll say that he "gave-in" to the "rationalist" in him.
***Damn, JA, that is some kind of nasty!! Unforgivable, really. As if he were his J Edgar Hoover to your John Lennon - thankfully without J Edgar's power.
Follow Ups:
You said: "At some point Aczel seems to have stopped "trusting his ears"."
This is a very strange supposition since Peter Aczel used blind tests. Like many audio writers, after some of the audio clubs began hosting blind auditions, he began to consider sighted listening to be unreliable for detecting small differences and forming preferences based on the sound alone. With blind auditioning, especially double blind auditioning, preferences are formed from the sound alone.
There is nothing wrong with choosing equipment based on sighted auditioning (after all, you look at the equipment when you have it at home), but you can never be sure that your preferences are solely based on the sound. But many will maintain that the music sounded better with a different amplifier, or with different cables, etc. OK, but since one knows what equipment is being used, that will influence the preferences.
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"A fool and his money are soon parted." --- Thomas Tusser
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